3-D Asteroids Demo

Name:
3-D Asteroids
Company: Atari
Model #:
N/A
Programmer:
John Seghers
Year: 1983
Released?
No
Notes:
The title screen simply says Asteroids

 

As the name implies, 3-D Asteriods is a demo created by John Seghers featuring 3-D Asteroids.  According to John, this demo was created in direct response to GCC's version of Asteroids for the 7800 (then called 3-D Asteroids) which was being created around the same time.  John decided to throw this demo together to show that the 5200 too could do real 3-D looking asteroids.  It's unknown if this demo was intended to be a simple proof of concept or a idea for a new game.

 


As this is just a proof of concept demo, there really isn't much to do in this prototype.  Clusters of 3-D asteroids drift across the screen, spinning round and round.  After a short time they will begin to break apart into smaller and smaller asteroids until the entire screen is full of tiny little asteroids.  After a little while longer the asteroids will start to disappear one by one until the screen is empty, then the demo will start again.

 

There's no interaction in this demo, all you can do is watch the asteroids break apart until you shut it off.  While impressive, this demo has some oddities to it. The asteroids have a weird a pink and green color scheme, which may be a result of the graphics mode used.  The asteroids also don't explode when they break apart, the larger asteroid just disappears and the next smaller asteroid appears.  But being a proof of concept demo, these quirks aren't unexpected.


Although this demo never resulted in an updated version of Asteroids being created, it does show that the 5200 was more than capable of pulling off a better version of Asteroids than what was ultimately ported. 


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